Kwame Nkrumah, the first prime minister (1957-1960) and president (1960-1966) of the Republic of Ghana, was the leader of the first sub-Saharan African nation to gain its independence. He subsequently became a leading figure in the campaign for the United States of Africa. Nkrumah was born on September 21, 1909, in Nkroful, Gold Coast. The son of a goldsmith, he attended mission schools at Accra and government training colleges at Achimota (1926-1930) where he prepared to be a teacher.

In 1935, Nkrumah left for the United States where he attended Lincoln University (1935-1939) and the University of Pennsylvania (1939-1943). A gifted student, by 1943 Nkrumah had earned multiple bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics, sociology, education, theology, and philosophy. Then, in May of 1945, Nkrumah departed for London, England, where he studied as a Ph.D. student at the London School of Economics. While in London, Nkrumah held key positions in anti-colonialist and Black-nationalist organizations and authored controversial papers calling for African independence and unity. In 1945, Nkrumah co-founded the Pan African Congress, which became an influential voice against colonialism in Africa.

In 1947, Nkrumah returned to the Gold Coast and became general secretary of the newly-founded United Gold Coast Convention. However, in 1949 Nkrumah split with the organization over its political objectives and formed the Convention People’s Party (CPP). During his tenure as head of the CPP, Nkrumah protested British rule and led numerous petitions for self-government. Imprisoned by the British in 1950 for his political activities, Nkrumah was released in 1951 when his party won the general election in a landslide victory. He subsequently was elected prime minister in 1952.

As prime minister, Nkrumah led an aggressive campaign for independence and achieved it in 1957. Three years later, he formed a new government, the Republic of Ghana. A devoted Pan-Africanist, Nkrumah forged alliances with both Guinea and Mali and sought to create a league of African states with its own government. To help achieve this goal, in 1963 he and other African leaders formed the Organization of African Unity. Choosing to remain neutral in political affairs outside of the African continent, Nkrumah initially gained tentative support from both the United States and the Soviet Union, receiving economic and technical aid from both countries.

Vigorously suppressing political dissidents, Nkrumah almost immediately was branded a dictator by his political opponents. Then, in 1961 a firestorm of protest erupted after he appointed himself supreme commander of the armed forces and absolute head of the CPP. Nkrumah subsequently outlawed all other political parties.

In 1966, Nkrumah’s government was overthrown by a coup d’état while he was on a trip to Beijing, China. Taking refuge in Guinea, Nkrumah spent the rest of his life in exile. He died in Bucharest, Romania on April 27, 1972.

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    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      And good art design, a loooong production time, good use of practical effects mixed with CGI, and a bunch of other stuff. Read up on how the Avengers movies get made. It's a complete clusterfuck. The CGI for whole scenes is being worked out within weeks of release. In some cases they're releasing the movie and still changing shit for subsequent markets.

      • ssjmarx [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Another big problem that accompanies the advent of CG is that they start designing and rendering scenes before principle photography is finished, meaning that the director sends everyone home and goes to the editing booth without even knowing what all of the footage they'll have to work with will look like (sometimes they won't know until literally release night, in cases like you mentioned). So if something doesn't look good or someone wants to make a change or some problem is discovered midway through production, it can be literally impossible to fix it because it's involved in some effect that's already halfway done and will cost tens of millions of dollars to replace.

        You can see this in miniature in the Star Wars prequel making-ofs, where George Lucas complains about sets and stuff being made before he's even written the script. Those movies were bad for a lot of reasons but it can't have helped that he was locked out of changing things by the sheer size and momentum of the production.

        • Frank [he/him, he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          You'd think that the gradual accumulation of knowledge and technique would lead to a consistent improvement in the end product but I have lived long enough to say confidently that not only is this not true, but often times the opposite happens. Largely due to Capitalism's race to the bottom, but also for other reasons.